OIS NEWS - 03/07/2017

On March 3, 2017, USCIS announced that starting April 3, 2017 it will temporarily suspend premium processing for all H-1B petitions. You may read the full announcement on the USCIS website. USCIS states the main reason for the suspension is to rebalance processing times for standard processing, which has been backlogged for over two years. Please note that although USCIS mentions an “expedite option” in their announcement, we know from years of experience that USCIS rarely grants these exceptions and that it is not a viable alternative in the majority of cases.

The Office of International Services is dedicating resources to file as many UIC sponsored H-1B premium processing cases as possible prior to the April 3rd deadline. If you have a case currently pending in our office or at USCIS Service Center and you would like to change to premium processing, please contact us immediately. We will prioritize cases that are already in queue and do our best to process newly submitted cases in the next week. It is imperative that your department submit all required documents to our office as quickly as possible in order to file the case to USCIS prior to the April 3rd deadline.

Feel free to contact the Office of International Services with any questions about this update.